Generally, drug utilization review (“DUR”), on consumer purchases of non-prescription (“OTC”), products is not required or necessary on either the OTC purchasing side or the prescription dispensing side. There are a number of reasons including: (1) it is unclear who is actually using the OTC product, (2) most state laws require a “reasonable effort” to collect patient information (including OTC use); a DUR is not typically performed in the industry.
The growth and expansion of the internet and e-commerce has led to increased consumer purchases of OTC products from a computer rather than in a public setting with accessibility to a live pharmacist. When available in a public setting, a pharmacist can perform a review of the adequateness of an OTC product, and provide an alternative recommendation when a proposed OCT purchase would lead to a potential drug-drug or drug-disease interaction.
Accordingly, we have determined that there exists a need in the art for a computer system and computer implemented method to perform real-time drug interaction screening at the point of sale.